The Mental and Physical Well-Being of Imaging Techs during COVID-19
Student Name
Institution Affiliation
Imaging Technologist during the COVID-19 Pandemic
Covid-19, so far, has been one of the major world health concerns that have ravaged various aspects of life. The given pandemic has affected many parts of life worldwide, ranging from death to economic standstill. Ultimately, every person in the world has been affected differently due to the given disease, both directly and indirectly. The given Covid-19 pandemic has put the world on its feet with many trying to find for solutions, finding for ways to curb the spread of the deadly virus and finding vaccines for the various among others such as learning its behavior characteristics owing to eth fact that it is still new to the medical profession. During this given pandemic, the mental health and physical being of individuals are essentially vital for survival. Imaging technologists play a vital role in the diagnosis process of COVID-19 infection and results (Chong, Kagetsu, Yen & Cooke, 2020). Therefore, what does an imaging technologist do? An imaging technologist or commonly known as a radiographer, often deals with modern and sophisticated techology to produce X-rays, among other essential images, such as magnetic resonance imaging and scans. Additionally, a radiographer also helps in monitoring and treating patient illnesses. This essay will focus on the mental and physical well-being of imaging technologists during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Firstly, a point to note is that imaging departments in hospitals during this given pandemic have a vital responsibility of offering assistance and helping manage patients. Radiographers often have a crucial task as staff of facing the patients. Ultimately, with the current changing situation of health in the world characterized by fluidity of emerging evidence, radiographers must be kept informed at all timers towards facilitating their physical health and mental well-being (Shi et.al., 2020). Ultimately, it is an imminent responsibility shared between health management and at personal levels. Additionally, significant policies should be put in place to ensure that radiographers protect themselves and other colleagues and patients among other healthcare professionals. One of the most important questions to ask is to what extent is imaging technologists’ physical health and mental well-being? For these given individuals to maintain their physical and mental well-being, they need personal protective equipment and effective training on how to stay safe and ensure patient safety during this pandemic.
With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, safety guidelines have far been improved and enhanced with the regards to the increasing cases of infections concerning hospital settings that do not significantly involve non-aerosol-generating contact. For instance, to ensure imaging technologists’ physical well-being, staff need to be provided with surgical masks, among other essentials such as eye protectors and disposable aprons and gloves. Additionally, special guidance has also been provided regarding the vital role that imaging technologists play with the chest radiographs, which is essentially vital in disease and infection diagnosis. However, there are several challenges in upholding both physical and mental well-being among imaging technologists. During this COVID-19 pandemic, numerous studies and diagnoses have to be dome each given day as the number of patients who get infected with the virus often increases at an alarming rate. Therefore, this aspect exists as a challenge because only a few imaging technologists in the hospital are required to handle large numbers of patients daily. During this pandemic, a point to understand is that radiographers are often the first healthcare personnel to view a diagnostic image. Therefore, they are relied upon to provide a rapid clinical evaluation suggesting a possible COVID-19 infection.
Additionally, imaging technologists also have to review all the diagnostic scans made either from the lungs, chest, and abdomen. Therefore, with the given tone of responsibilities, imaging technologists find very little time to rest or even at some point often do not rest as they rush to beat the odds. Moreover, with very little time to rest imaging technologists, they find it very hard to even take care of themselves and may even lead to mental stress due to the pressure at their workplaces. One of the most significant aspects to also understand is that some imaging technologists may suffer from post-traumatic syndromes from their experiences at work, such as witnessing painful deaths or even suffering from guilt concerns on what they could have done to save the situation or that patients’ lives. Consequently, other than the mentioned aspects, imaging technologist is also at risk of conducting the given infection because they work numerous without rest to the extent that they may forget to take care of themselves. Moreover, a point to note is that fatigue can also contribute to an individual’s adverse mental condition.
The many thousands of hours dedicated to fighting COVID-19 has essentially robed off imaging technologists the time needed to attend educational programs for radiographers regarding their physical and mental well-being. Therefore, imaging technologists are at a risk of developing stress and strain significantly affecting their mental and physical wellbeing. Moreover, this is attributed to the fact that with the current pandemic there exists a disparity between the comprehensions on the requirements on one side with the ability to meet the demands on the other side. Moreover, psychological stress often comes in when there is a recognition that perceived threats either real or imagined may require unavailable resources as it is with the case with the current pandemic. Recent study shows that a significant percentage of radiographers or imaging psychologists suffer for from mental illness with the current situation that essentially require medical attention that is unavailable due to minimum time available as they are required to work around the clock.
Both physical and mental wellbeing are very critical aspects for the general well-being of imaging technologists. Therefore, it is essentially important for imaging technologist to ensures that they find time to take care of themselves during this time. Moreover, as an imaging technologist, having a deteriorating mental and physical health can significantly have a devastating impact on the life of an individual. Therefore, how health departments ensure for the mental and physical well-being of imaging technologists. Health departments in hospitals have to avoid too much news regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and rather provide up to date information that may be of help to the imaging technologist in maintaining both physical and mental well-being.
The provided information on COVID-19 should essentially come from trusted sources be rather straight forward avoiding any given forms of fake aspect and scary opinions. Moreover, there has been too much stigma surrounding the given pandemic over getting infected. A point to note is that the virus responsible for COVID-19 is highly infectious and spreads easily in many ways that are still under study. Imaging technologist should also be provided with relevant information on how they can stay safe during this pandemic while carrying out their daily duties. One the other hand, since the number of imaging technologist is very low when compared with the demands of the current situation, there is need for more imaging technologist to be trained to release the strain that is currently exhibited in terms of service delivery.
Imaging technologist also need to understand that there are a lot of uncertainties that surround this given pandemic. Additionally, they should understand that the fear of the unknown concerning COVID-19 may contribute to high levels of stress which in turn may compromise their mental well-being. Therefore, imaging technologist should avoid trying to predict how the future will be and believe that normalcy will return sooner. Physical well-being is directly related to the mental well-being of an individual. Therefore, imaging technologist should ensure that they balance both aspects. How can imaging technologist ensures that their physical well-being is upheld? They can do so by making sure that they eat healthy at all times even with their most tight schedule. Therefore, they should always try to plan meals ahead of time to ensures that they get the required portion of nutrients. Consequently, to planning meals ahead of time, health department should also make sure to provide imaging technologist with the right information on how to eat well with regards to their busy schedule.
Imaging technologist should also make sure to get quality rest in partnership with the health departments to avoid to much activity that involves brainwork. Additionally, raising of the heart rate once a day between the busy schedule and make sure to stay hydrated as it helps in keeping the physical health top form. Other significant moves that the healthcare sector may come up with in upholding both the mental and physical well-being of imaging technologist is making use of mobile imaging in motoring and managing COVID-19 patients. This move will make sure that a larger number of patients can be attended to on a very short period of time and also provide enough time to the imaging technologist to get rest between their busy schedule. Moreover, the techniques will also help in reducing the aspect of doing too much at once as patients and diagnostics will be made through mobile applications. Also, making use of the personal protective equipment as mentioned earlier will be very helpful in ensuring that the physical well-being of imaging technologist is upheld.
In conclusion, another aspect of concern is the protection of imaging technologist from radiation as they are involved in conducting many scans around the clock. Adequate fiancé should also be deployed by the healthcare sector to make sure that both the mental and physical well-being of this given individuals is upheld through funding the acquisition of protective equipment and provision of up to date and relevant information.
Reference
Chong, A., Kagetsu, N. J., Yen, A., & Cooke, E. A. (2020). Radiology residency preparedness and response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Academic Radiology.
Shi, F., Wang, J., Shi, J., Wu, Z., Wang, Q., Tang, Z. & Shen, D. (2020). Review of artificial intelligence techniques in imaging data acquisition, segmentation and diagnosis for covid-19. IEEE reviews in biomedical engineering.